The Cherry Wave

“If the moon smiled, she would resemble you. You leave the same impression of something beautiful, but annihilating”

I notice that your logo is inspired by one of the legendary circular Crass emblems created by Dave King in the late 70’s, is it just a graphic factor or have you been politically and musically influenced by the DIY antagonist Crass legacy?….

Thanks so much for the interview!. Please help our readers better understand the band’s origins, the early influences and inspirations, how you met and came up as a band and the choice of your name.

Hey man, we’ve been a band since 2012. The consistent members throughout that time have been myself (Paul vocals/guitar) and Adam who’s the drummer. We’ve had a couple of guitarists and a couple of bassists in that time. Ryan (guitar) has been with us since our previous full length, ‘Avalancher‘, and Bobby (bass) joined last year.

I met Adam through an ad I put online looking for a drummer. The influences I sited at the time were the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr., Pinkshinyultrablast, No Joy, Ringo Deathstarr. That sort of thing. We’ve been lucky enough to play with No Joy, Pinkshinyultrablast and Deathstarr. No shows with MBV and Dino yet though haha.

The band name was just some words I liked together. Despite what people always think, we’re not named after the Deftones song ‘CherryWaves‘.

What type of music or forms of art were you exposed to as children/teenagers? Was there a moment when you decided that music was what you wanted to pursue?

Growing up my older brother was into a lot of metal and thrash. Metallica, Black Sabbath etc. was always around. I didn’t really listen to any music at all myself when I was young. I wasn’t into music until I was about 16. I had dropped out of school and was having quite a tumultuous time at home, and I started to get pretty deep into hardcore and anarcho punk. That was a massive thing for me.

Since I was young, I’ve always heard comparing Glasgow to my hometown Turin (twin city too!) because of their ‘hard’ post-industrial and working class backbone, but they have also in common an unquestionable open-mindedness and creative attitude to music. Which inspiring impact has your town had and still has on your artistic creativity? Just a few days ago I’ve read by chance about the story of the Rutherglen Poltergeist and The Gorbals Vampires, need more?

Glasgow has definitely been a big influence and inspiration for me. I grew up in the East End of the city, and the area was about as desolate and uncompromising as you could probably imagine. A very intense environment to grow up in. A while back I was unfortunately homeless, and that situation ultimately led to me moving to the West End, which has impacted me heavily also. It’s still Glasgow, but the dichotomy between both sides of the City is absolutely astounding. Living in the West of the city has made it easier for me to fall in love with Glasgow, and that contrast between growing up in the East and hating my surroundings, to now living in the West and adoring my surroundings is a constant theme that I find myself returning to for lyrics.

I notice that your logo is inspired by one of the legendary circular Crass emblems created by Dave King in the late 70’s, is it just a graphic factor or have you been politically and musically influenced by the DIY antagonist Crass legacy? The Orwellian totalitarianism they fought in those days is not too dissimilar to the today’s one though.

Crass, their art, their music, their label and their ideas have been the most important artistic influence on my life. Everything I do has been touched by them and their existence. I would be a very different person had I not heard Crass when I was a teenager.

How is your approach to the song composition? How is the songwriting process divided between you four?

Adam and I do the most writing of music for the band. Bobby wrote two of the songs on that last record too, and hopefully he’ll be contributing lots more going forward. He did a ton of backing vocals on the new record too, and has generally been a great addition to the band. When one of us turn up with a new song, it’s basic structure and theme is pretty much done. Then we just play it as a band and little bits are altered or added in a pretty natural way. There’s no big drama or ego if someone wants something changed or doesn’t like an idea. We’re pretty laid back in that regard. When we have the music down, I’ll start coming up with lyrics and vocal ideas at the end.

How important are the lyrics for you? How much is your lyrics writing from personal experience and how much draws from external sources? Please, could you talk about them?

All the lyrics are personal experience, but they’re usually pretty opaque and abstract, so they can be interpreted however people want to interoperate them. But, ultimately they all reflect something that’s happened to me or something I’ve felt or hoped or thought or dreamt. People could pick them up and think it’s all gibberish, but to me I know what it all means, and why I wrote it.

Your 2014 debut album ‘Avalancher’ was, rather late, released by Saint Marie Records, this time for your sophomore one you’ve chosen the ‘self release’, back to your DIY early days. Why this choice? Is your own Lamppost Records label still working?

Lamppost Records never really kicked off cos we’re too lazy and poor to do anything with it tbh. Saint Marie Records picked up ‘Avalancher‘, and that entire experience with them was extremely negative, which in part was why we decided to self release ‘Shimaru‘.

After your debut album you were complaining about the lack of time and money. I don’t think in the meantime you won the lottery and became suddenly millionaire, so what’s the difference sound-wise from your debut album? Have you been able this time to achieve that expansive and all-encompassing vibe you aimed for? Which songs would you pick out as your most representative your sound and why?

We’re still poor as fuck, with no label backing, no rich parents, no Kickstarter campaigns. We just muddled together with what we had and Lewis Glass at Glassworks Recordings was good enough to do what he could to make it happen at his recording studio in Glasgow. We’re extremely pleased with how it turned out. We still recorded it quickly (4 days), but that’s what had to happen to get the album recorded. ‘Softwater‘ off ‘Shimaru‘ is a pretty decent representation of what we’re about.

Just two things I’m very curious about, the first is your meaning of the word ‘Shimaru’ (any Japanese fascination?), the second is the real sense, if any, behind the phrase ‘the sound of falling apart’.

Yeah, a lot of my favourite bands are Japanese. Boris, GISM, Confuse, Oeil, Disclose, Bloodthirsty Butchers. When we recorded ‘Shimaru‘, that was just what it sounded like to me. Like everything was at the edge of collapse, almost breaking down and imploding in on itself.

What about about your ridiculous obsession for fuzz and the related freaky passion for pedals? Any of you will be also in a ‘Let’s see your Pedal’ frenzy, I guess…

Haha, yeah I just love fuzz. I just like that sound, and we’re in the golden age of pedals, so it’s hard not to be sucked into that whole thing. There’s a lot more overdrive on the new record though, as opposed to just fuzz the whole time. Mixing it up.

What’s your favourite part about playing live and can you remember your 1st gig as a band? Do you have any plan for a European tour?

No plans for any tours. Unless someone else pays for it. Our first show was at a post rock gig in Glasgow. A fire started in the building before we finished our set. That was pretty nice. I’m sort of tired of playing live at this point. The negatives consistently outweigh the positives. I like playing Bloc in the city centre though, cos they actually pay bands, which is a rarity.

Could you pick any favourite bands/artists from Scotland and from abroad are you excited by recently?

Locally there’s not much. There’s a cool Fugazi type band called Slowlight that people should check out though. Abroad, I’m pretty into the last Big|Brave record and the last Culture Abuse album. Shoegaze wise, Kindling are good friends of ours and they’re fucking incredible.

Many thanks for being our welcome guest, just the last question: Which are your future plans?

Make more records. That’s always the plan. Keep doing it to spite all the idiots that wish we would stop.